The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-07-14
FROM DUNGEON TOPALACE
DIR. TAlMAGE breaches AT THE
tIAMPTONS.

tlF1mT lOISOs
Morbid and Sicl1ly Ideas of Dcath-The
Way Out of This World Should be the
Most Cheerful Passage in All n Chris
tian's History.
THE HANPToNs, July 10-The Brooklyn
Tabernacle being closed for enlargement,
the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., pas
tor, spent his first Sabbath away from
his flock the present season at this sum-
mcr home. His subject for today was,
"From Dungeon to Palace" and his text
t"rhc time Of my departure is at hand'-
II Timothy iv, 8.
The way out of this world is so blocked
up with coffin and hearse, and under
takers spade and screwdriver, that the
Christian can hardly think as he ought of
the most cheerful passage in all his his
tory. We hang black instead of white
over the place where the good man gets
his last victory. We stand weeping over
q heap of chains which the freed soul has
shaken off, and we say Poor man!
What pity it was he had to come
to thisr' Come to what? BY the time
the people have assembled at the obsequies
that man has been three days so happy
would be wretehedness beside it, and he
might better weep over you because you
have to stay, than you weep over him be-
cause he has to 60 1t is fortunate
thing that good man does not have to
wait to see his own obsequies, they would
be so discordant with his own experience.
If the Israelites should go back to Egypt
and mourn over the brick kilns they once
left, they would not be any more silly
than that Christian who should forsake
heaven and come down and mourn be-
cause he had to leave this world. Our
ideas of the Christians death are morbid
and sickly. We look upon it as dark
hole, in which man stumbles when his
breath gives out This whole subject is
odorous with varnish and dsinfectants.
instead of being sweet with mignonette.
Paul, in my text, takes that great clod of
q word, "death,'' and throws it away,
and speaks Of his 'departure''-a beauti-
full, bright, suggestive word, descriptive
of every Christians release.
Now departure implies starting place
and place Of destination. When Paul
left this world what was the starting
point? 1t was a scene of great physical
distress. 1t was the Tullianum, the lower
dungeon OF the Mamertine prison. The
top dungeon WAS bad enough, it having
no means of ingreSs or egresS but through
an opening in the top. Through that the
prisoner was lowered, and through that
came all the food and air and light re-
ceived 1t was terrible place, that
upper dungeon; bnt the Tullianum was
the lower dungeon, and that was still
more wretched, the only light and the
only air coming through the roof, and
that roof the floor of the upper dungeon.
That was Paul's last earthly residence,
It was a dungeon just six feet and half
high. 1t was doleful place. 1t had the
chill of long centuries of dampness. 1T
was filthy with the long Incarceration OF
miserable wretches. 1t was there that
Paul spent his last days on earth, and il
is there that j see him today, in the fear
full dungeon, shivering blue with the
cold, waiting for that old overcoat which
he had sent for up to Troas, and which
they had not yet sent down, notWithstand-
ing he had written for it.
If some skiilful surgeon should 60 into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated
we might find out what are the prospects
of Paul's living through the rough i'm
prsonment. In the first place, he is ar
old man, only two years short of 40. ~
that very time when ho most needs the
warmth and the sunlight and the fresl
air, he is shut. out from the sun, What
are those scars on his ankles? Why thOsC
were gotten when he was fast, his feet il
the stocks. Every time he turned The
flesh on his ankles started. What arr
those scars on his back? You know h(
was whipped five times, each time getting
thirty-nine strokes-195 bruises on tht
back count themD made by the Jew!
with rods of elmwood, each one of The 10,
IL
Paul's face and look at his arms
Where did he get those bruises
/ think it was when he was strugglin!
ashore amidst the shivered timber
of the shipwreck see a cash in Paul
side. Where did he get that? l think Ii
got that in the tussle with hlghwaymen
for he had been in peril of robbers and h
had money of his own. He was n me
chanic as well as an apostle, and l thin
the tents he made were as good as his sci
mons.
There is d wanness about Paups looks
What makes thatS l think part of tina
came from the fact that he was 10
twenty-four hours on n plank i'll til
Mediterranean sea, suffering terribly, bC
fore he was rescued; for he says pos
lively: 81 was q night and day ia III
deep.n Oh, worn out, emaciated oi
man! surely you must be melancholy
No constitution could endure this and :
cheerful But / press my way throug
the prison until come up close to whel
he is. and by the faint light that stream
through the opening l see on his face
supernatural joy, and bow before hin
and l say: "Aged man, how can yo
keep cheerful amidst all this gloomy' II
voice startles the darkness of the place 6
he cries out: 81 am now ready to /
offered, and the time of my departu
is at hand" Hark! what is that shuf1in
of feet in, the upper dungeon? Why, Pa1
has an invitation to a banquet, and he
going to dine today with the king Tho
shuffling feet are the feet OF the exec
tiouers. They come, and they cry dow
through the hole of the dungeon: 'Hurl
nm old man. Come now; get yoursC
ready" Why, Paul was ready. He h'
nothing to pack up. He had no bagga
TO take. He had been ready good Will
i see him rising up, and strengthening o
his stiffened limbs, and pushing back |
white hair from his Creviced forehead, al
see him looking up through the hole in
roof of the dungeon into the face OF |
executioner, and hear him say; ~ a
now ready to be offered, and the time
INV departure is Mt hand" Then they |
nm OUT Ol lIit huilSSSolis anu bhSS HNs
with him to the place of execution. Th
say: ''Hurry along, old man, or you W
feel the weight of ou spear. HUI
along" "How far is it, =" says Paul, :"
have to travcly'' "ThrCe miles" TIL
miles is good way for an
man to travel after he has be
whipped and crippled with m
treatment. But they soon get to the pl;
of execution-Acquae Salyia-and he
fastened to the pillar of martyrdom.
does not take any strength TO tie him ia
He makes no resistance. o Paul! "
not strike for your life? You have or
many friends here. With that withel
hand just launch the thunderbolt OF
people upon those infamous soldiers. !
Paul was not going to interfere with
OWL coronation. He was too glad to &c